PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - George D. Veenhuyzen
AU  - Christopher S. Simpson
AU  - Hoshiar Abdollah
TI  - Atrial fibrillation
AID  - 10.1503/cmaj.1031364
DP  - 2004 Sep 28
TA  - Canadian Medical Association Journal
PG  - 755--760
VI  - 171
IP  - 7
4099  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/171/7/755.short
4100  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/171/7/755.full
SO  - CMAJ2004 Sep 28; 171
AB  - ATRIAL FIBRILLATION (AF) is the most common sustained dysrhythmia in adults. It is ironic, then, that although mechanisms and effective treatments for most other supraventricular tachyarrhythmias have been discovered, AF remains incompletely understood and poorly treated. Nonetheless, our understanding of the pathophysiology of AF has improved in the last half-century, including some groundbreaking observations made in the last 10 years. Indeed, for some patients, the potential for cure now appears to be available. Because no unifying mechanism of AF has been proven, the aim of this review is to describe some of the common and important concepts behind current mechanistic theories of AF and how they contribute to our clinical understanding of AF.